Pope Francis meets with leaders of the Latin American and Caribbean Confederation of Religious.

VATICAN CITY (CNS)—A report that Pope Francis privately acknowledged
the existence of a "gay lobby" inside the Vatican offers a sensational
example of his unvarnished speaking style and a reminder of the
challenge that style poses for the papacy in the age of digital
communications and vanishing privacy.

On the other hand, an acknowledgment that the Catholic Church's central
administration is troubled by factionalism and personal failings must be
less than startling to anyone who has been following the news lately.

But the context of the headline-grabbing comment is a series of remarks
most illuminating for what they reveal: not about divisions within the
church, but about Pope Francis' vision of its harmony and unity.

Pope Francis' words to the leaders of the Latin American and Caribbean
Confederation of Men and Women Religious, or CLAR, as originally
reported on a website in Chile, have not been denied by anyone who was
there.

A statement from CLAR -- issued after the Chilean report -- described
the leaked account of the June 6 Vatican meeting as a "summary based on
the memories of the participants" and a reliable record of the pope's
"general meaning," though not a verbatim transcript.

Speaking to his fellow Latin American religious, the first Jesuit pope
touched on some of the major points of tension that have marked
relations between religious orders and the hierarchy in recent decades.
He did so in a manner at once conciliatory and firm, both encouraging
and sober in its assessment of the church's problems.

He urged the religious to "put all your commitment into dialogue with
the bishops," even though "there are some (bishops) who have another
idea of communion" from that held by many religious.

The pope also counseled his visitors to take a constructive attitude toward criticism and discipline from the Vatican.

"Maybe you will get a letter from the Congregation for the Doctrine (of
the Faith) saying that you said this or that," the pope reportedly said.
"But don't worry. Explain what you have to explain, but keep going."

While affirming the reality of error and the hierarchy's responsibility to correct it, his emphasis was on forgiveness.

"You are going to make mistakes, you are going to put your foot in it.
That happens!" he said. "I prefer a church that makes mistakes because
it is doing something to one that sickens because it stays shut in."

Yet, Pope Francis did not hesitate to classify certain trends in the
contemporary church as manifestations of ancient heresies. As an example
of Gnosticism, he cited the case of an unnamed superior general of a
congregation of women religious who encouraged members to "take a
spiritual bath in the cosmos" in lieu of morning prayer.

Complaints about such innovations by religious orders are by now a
familiar refrain from bishops, but the pope added what some might find a
surprising link between doctrinal fidelity and the church's commitment
to social justice.

Expressions of "pantheism" such as the sister's worry him, the pope is
quoted as saying, "because they skip the incarnation! And the son of God
was made our flesh, the word was made flesh, and in Latin America we
have flesh to spare! What happens with the poor, the pains, that is our
flesh ... ."

The pope also drew a link between the church's social and moral teaching
by relating economic injustice and legalized abortion in an analysis
that defies any division between "social justice" and "pro-life"
categories of Catholicism.

"Abortion is bad, but that is clear," he reportedly told the religious.
"But behind the approval of this law, what interests are behind it ...
." In an apparent reference to international organizations and private
foundations that promote population control in underdeveloped countries,
he added, "they are at times the conditions placed by the great groups
to support with money, you know that?"

Pope Francis also offered his visitors a sort of parable about the unity of clergy and laity.
Recalling the 2007 conference of Latin American bishops in Aparecida,
Brazil, which he described as a key step in a "continental mission," he
noted that the event "was not celebrated in a hotel, nor in a retreat
house."

Inside the conference rooms beneath the sanctuary of Brazil's greatest
Marian shrine, the bishops could hear the singing of the faithful
overhead as "background music," the pope said. "This made it very
special."

According to Pope Francis, contact with the faithful at Aparecida made a
crucial difference in the prelates' deliberations. He cited the case of
Brazilian Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz, then archbishop of Brasilia and
now prefect of the Vatican congregation that oversees religious orders,
whom the pope described as having a relatively "stiff" manner.

Then-Archbishop Braz de Aziz "went out with his miter, and the people
got close to him, and they brought the children near, and he greeted
them, and hugged them like this," the pope recalled. "This same bishop
then voted. He could not have voted the same way if he had been in a
hotel!"

The little story is a rich and suggestive image of Pope Francis' hopes
for the flock he has been chosen to lead: a church whose leaders are not
shut in with each other but surrounded by—in his words—the
"people of God."